The SunPerks Cafe is trying to occupy an interesting niche in downtown Salisbury.

Maria Lajoie opened the cafe on July 7, focusing on selling items like miniature paninis and espresso coffee. She talks at length about her want to expand the cafe as well, wanting to bring in new fixtures to adorn the front and inside of the business to bring a modern, yet local feel to the place.

But Lajoie isn’t a Salisbury-native or even a United States native, and through her somewhat appropriately chipper and upbeat attitude she paints a picture of what she hopes to be a slice of city life downtown.

The cafe owner from Canada is the only employee at SunPerks, coming from a stint in New York City where she managed both a bed and breakfast and a cafe.

She waxed poetic about managing the cafe, saying that while New York was a city that didn’t typically foster a community feel, she found one managing her cafe.

“When I was in New York, I had customers that shed tears when I left,” said Lejoie.

She decided to move to Salisbury after she had visited the area earlier this year, noticing that the former Yum Fresh Cafe had shut down.

“I had casually mentioned that I would love to own a little cafe,” said Lejoie. So, after speaking with the space’s former owner, she bought the space and began planning what she hoped would become a unique spot for the area’s intellectuals.

The inside of the cafe is still crude by her own admission. While the brick faced walls and minimalistic decoration bring a rustic feel, the bareness of the cafe is something she admits she trying to rectify.

“It’s still very much in its infancy,” said Lajoie. “There was one Tuesday where I only made $9.”

She talks about buying local, whether it entails going to the local farmer’s market to buy produce featured in her apricot cranberry scones or approaching local artists for paintings to adorn the walls of her business.

Only a month into owning the business, she said she has yet to really advertise, relying more on the community feel she was used to in New York to sell her business on its merits.

“I’m a firm believer in word of mouth,” said Lajoie.

She prepares much of her food on Monday, opening later so she has a chance to stock up on supplies for the week. Being the only employee, she’ll take the odd day off early to catch up on her sleep after a full day of preparing food if the store isn’t crowded.

She’s also very particular about where ingredients come from, so much so she suggests that she wants to emulate another restaurant that lists what ship in what ocean captured the seafood going into the restaurant’s entrees. This idea was all over her wont to offer fresh lobster rolls, something her cafe does not currently serve.

“I want to know what’s going into my food,” she says frankly.

Lajoie admits that she’s taking a chance on garnering a different clientele, hoping the area’s professors, artists and other intellectuals will appreciate the care she puts into her food and divert their attention away from the larger chains.

As she talks about her “energy bite,” a mix of flak seed oil, coconut, organic oats and protein mix, she adds that she wants the food to have “familiarity with some uniqueness.”

Preparing to close up the shop for the day, drinking a cup of coffee from the only blend of coffee she currently owns, “a very strong espresso blend,” she said she wants her restaurant to fit into the working class fabric of downtown Salisbury.